Here on Bullshido, we believe in "Alive" or resistant training as well as drilling techniques. We are not in favor of any martial art that features no alive training on a regular basis. Furthermore, we especially don't like MA's that lack aliveness and are full of pretentious, know-it-all students who act smugly superior when discussing their art.

Most of all though, it's the lack of non-compliant sparring. We do not think you will be adequately prepared for the chaos of a real fight, unless you have quite a bit of experience with the chaos of unscripted sparring.

Personaly I think akido is a fabulous MA. The problem is the way it is tought and the amount of smoke one needs to blow up your ass to convivce you that it would work.

??? Put the bong down brah.
The smoke can't hurt you no more.

Now to inject some relevance into the post, back when I was still training Karate, I had a chance to take a few Aikido classes. They were being offered right after the Karate class, so I figured why not.

While the warmups and the conditioning drills were brutal, the actual partner techniques were questionable at best. There was a point where the instructor performed a grab. The technique to lessen the impact of the grab, was to hop backwards on one foot, via what could only be described as a Kabuki dance.

Needless to say, I didnt show up to more than 2 classes before deciding it wasn't the best choice for me.

***
One more thing. The instructor would always yell at the students during training for "spitting qi." At one point, he gave a lecture on projecting "qi balls." What shames me greatly, is that this guy was Russian.

One more thing. The instructor would always yell at the students during training for "spitting qi." At one point, he gave a lecture on projecting "qi balls." What shames me greatly, is that this guy was Russian.

Dude or Bratan....Systema....
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OP (Original Poster), What is your goal in practicing Aikido?
If your goal is to become someone that can "handle himself in a street fight" than...BAD, even going to a gym and pumping iron in a strong man fashion, i.e Dead lifets, squats and drills that strengthen the entire body is way better use of your time. Aikido will take years and years for it to become significant in a self defense scenario, and even that is not granted.
I guess you need to tell us what your goals in training are.
Aikido can be a great activity for some people. Maybe you are one of them.

Dude or Bratan....Systema....
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OP (Original Poster), What is your goal in practicing Aikido?
If your goal is to become someone that can "handle himself in a street fight" than...BAD, even going to a gym and pumping iron in a strong man fashion, i.e Dead lifets, squats and drills that strengthen the entire body is way better use of your time. Aikido will take years and years for it to become significant in a self defense scenario, and even that is not granted.
I guess you need to tell us what your goals in training are.
Aikido can be a great activity for some people. Maybe you are one of them.

Actually, Systema is how overweight Russian drunks make money off gullible Americans.